Research Project: Entry Level English Certificate - Year 11 'OMAM'

[Nelleh]

I'm a mum and student. I welcome comments from students, parents, carers, teachers, teaching assistants!

If you are/have/teach teenagers who are pursuing this course, I would be interested to know if the course includes GCSE texts e.g. 'Of Mice and Men'?

If yes, is this a good thing? Does it increase motivation, cultural awareness and social communication?

If not, would you like to see such texts (or film versions) introduced in your schools? Why?

ANY comments related to this topic are welcomed. Thank you!

I teach this course....and also teach the students Of Mice and Men.

We are a large secondary school that currently teaches the course to four sets of students (around 50 students in total). The children are a real mixture. They either have learning difficulties (very few of them), have behavioural problems/ attendance problems (a few more) or are very recent to the country. The group that I teach is mainly made up of EAL students who not only started learning to speak English since starting secondary school, but also started learning to read and write at that point too i.e. they had not been to school in their own country.

I teach the text mainly because they enjoy it and it prompts discussion, yet is simple and easy to read. To be honest, it is not great for increasing cultural awareness or SE as it is set in Depression era America. I teach it in a variety of ways, but we do use the film version as well. Basically the kids find the reading exhausting (constant translation/ pressure of reading/ comprehension), so it is useful as a tool to help them visualise the text and as a break from something they find extremely tough

I also teach the text because the mainstream students study it and so it makes the class feel as though they are the same as everybody else.

Daughter studied OMAM in year 10. She enjoyed it (she's borderline CD ability). Yes, it increased her cultural awareness. A bit.

I'm not a great lover of film versions being shown as they often deviate from the written word. Maybe for low ability who need anything they can to help stimulate their understanding but not generally.

Thank you!